Top 10 Baby Things I Wouldn’t Be Without

When we were out having a Sunday roast recently (if you follow me on social media you’ll know that’s quite often!) we came to look at our booster seat for our son and thought “that’s one of the best buys we’ve made” and we were so right, as you can see in my review here.

That got us to thinking, what are our favourite buys for looking after our baby? Not clothes or nappies or anything like that. The more chunky things that are useful. So I thoughts I’d write them down as they could help other new parents to be…

10. Changing Table

To me it’s not really the specific changing table that we bought that makes it into the top ten, it’s the fact that we planned ahead and got one downstairs. No crouching down or sitting on the floor for us! Having a set up to change nappies (and sometimes clothes!) downstairs as well as upstairs saves so much effort.

9. Jumparoo

There are many different kits of Jumparoo out there but one of our main concerns was space. We didn’t want a Jumparoo that was so big it would take up the lounge space, and we also wanted one that could travel if we wanted. As such this one was perfect from Fisher Price. It folds up well to be transportable but it packed with enough features for N to enjoy himself.

The key thing about any Jumparoo is that with the baby in there you have some time to yourself to have a sit down and a rest. That’s why a Jumparoo is so important in my eyes.

8. Gro Egg

I’ve written a review of the Gro Egg before now (here) and for me this is one of the most useful purchases we made. It’s difficult to know what to put a baby in to sleep when the temperature varies so much, but knowing the start temperature at night is important! We use the Gro website (here) to say what N should be dressed in depending on the temperature. It’s a great site, check it out!

7. Portable High Chair

As you can see in my review here I think this portable and collapsible high chair is excellent. It’s a great addition to the kit you need (when they’re old enough to sit up of course). Just chuck it in the boot of your car and leave it there. Get it out when you need it and it’s small enough to ignore when you don’t.

We often comment on how great we think it is. Read my review and see what you think!

6. Play Gym

This Bright Starts gym is no ordinary play gym. This is a 5-in-1 play gym. In essence though it’s either a flat ordinary play gym with stuff to grab and things to listen to, or it turns into a ball pit. It’s really is a fantastic toy for N.

The thing is that it really comes in so handy with N when we need to do something or just have a cuppa. Put him on the mat and give him time to play and he will happily stay there for 10-15 minutes without fuss. That’s precious time when you’re a parent! A cup of tea type duration! Even if you don’t get this play gym, I’d recommend getting one of any variety!

5. Nappy Bins

I guess if you don’t have nappy bins then you would put a nappy in a nappy bag and take it straight to the outside bin. If you change one in the night I guess that nappy bag is left somewhere convenient to take out the next morning.

I’ll be honest, I couldn’t be bothered with picking up nappy bags from everywhere. Plus, perhaps there’s a risk of them smelling through a nappy bag (especially those from N!). As such, our nappy bins (upstairs and downstairs) were a great addition for us. They saved so much effort as you only empty them about twice a week, if that.

4. BT 6000 Video Baby Monitor

Again, I’ve written a review of this particular monitor (here). Of course with a baby I can’t imagine anyone not having a monitor of some sort, whether that be sound, video or movement based. I know they’re a fairly recent thing in the grand scheme of the human race so babies do survive without them, but it makes us parents feels more comfortable!

This monitor is great. A large screen, good quality images and you can move the camera remotely. You can talk to your baby remotely and play tunes (which has calmed N down a few times!). It’s truly is great and I can’t imagine life without it.

3. Kiddy Evoluna I-Size Car Seat

Here we go into the top three!

There are many car seats out there of course, but not many that have passed the more stringent EU tests like this car seat has, so safety is extremely high on this.

Also it lays flat which means younger babies can travel for longer than the recommended 20 minutes at once. This really helped us in the early days and still does today with N sleeping in the car. We think it’s a great car seat and gives us a lot of confidence. You can see my review here.

2. Uppababy Vista Carrycot and Pram

Of course every baby is going to need a pram, but we frequently comment between ourselves just how good the Uppababy Vista really is. Not for any reason other than amazement at how good it is.

The space in the basket, the exceptionally high finish of every item on it, the various other features that make it easy to use (one hand lift on the carrycot for example) all add up to make one fine pram, and here’s my more detailed review.

1. Tommee Tippee Perfect Prep Machine

At number one, the most important buy we made, is the Tommee Tippee Perfect Prep machine. I’ve done a review of this before (here) but the Tommee Tippee Perfect Prep machine really is fantastic. It’s such a time saver, especially in the early days when you’re making lots of bottles every day. We found it so useful we bought two, one for upstairs and one for downstairs. Now N is having fewer bottles he has them all downstairs. As such the ‘spare’ machine is now at Nanna’s house for when we visit it’s that useful. We even take it on holiday with us when we can! I really wouldn’t be without it.

Summary

So there you go, my top ten items when bringing up our baby. Hopefully this list is helpful to you.

What would be in your top ten list?

Do you know anyone else that could find this handy? Feel free to share!

Here are all of my reviews.